The Success Of A Codified Constitution

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The success of a constitution is dependent upon its ability to evolve’. Discuss (50 marks) - June 2010
A constitution is a body of fundamental principles according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed. The UK and U.S are polar opposites in terms of their constitutions. The UK has a uncodified constitution which means the fundamental rules are often take the form of customs, usage, precedent and a variety of statutes and legal instruments, this type of constitution is only present in 3 countries New Zealand, Israel and the UK. However the U.S has a codified constitution which means it has a formal document defining the rules that govern the political system and the rights of citizens and governments, this type …show more content…

With the U.S being a codified constitution there are less disagreements over the meaning of amendments as it is all clarified in one paper. However in the UK the uncodified constitution has caused a lot of argument due to everyone having different interpretations. For example the royal prerogative, it lists “military action” as one of the powers but it’s not so easy to define, is it intelligence support, proxy wars or cyber warfare. Also there is individual ministerial responsibility that has caused a lot of controversy in recent years, even though the constitutional convention states that a cabinet minister bears the ultimate responsibility for the actions of their ministry or department, Theresa May the Home Secretary told MPs in 2011 she would not resign over revelations that UK border checks were relaxed over a four month period even though the constitutional convention stated she had to. If the success of a constitution was solely measured by its clarity it cannot be disputed the U.S codified constitution would be considered a success as opposed to the UKs uncodified constitution. However the success of a constitution cannot be solely judged by its clarity as seen by the failure of the written constitutions with the Third and Fourth Republic in

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